What better day than the final one of 2024 to look back on some highlights of the season and track the season that was!
2024 was a year where the Cardinals raised the floor, but failed to raise the ceiling and certainly prevented any fan from “raising the roof” in celebration by the end of the season. No, our beloved Cardinals didn’t achieve their ultimate goal of their 12th World Series Championship and they also fell short of making the playoffs for the second consecutive season. As we prepare to head into the final season of the Mozeliak era in St. Louis, it’s fitting on the final day of ‘24 to look back on the season that was.
January-February
Technically the starting trio of Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, and Kyle Gibson were signed in November so they don’t count. January 5th saw the Cardinals execute a rare “sell high” trade sending outfielder Richie Palacios to the Tampa Bay Rays for 34-year-old high leverage reliever Andrew Kittredge coming off a 6 week bounce back from TJ surgery. The move proved to be a shrewd one by Mozeliak. In 74 games, Kittredge went 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA had a 23.3 K% was 31% above league average according to ERA- and was a +1.87 WPA, which was his highest mark since his All Star 2021 season.
2 weeks later on January 19th the Cardinals brought back veteran infielder Matt Carpenter on a 1-year deal. In 59 games Carpenter slashed .234/.314/.372 which was a .686 OPS and was 0.2 fWAR and 95 wRC+. For a bench bat he was fine and the “veteran leadership” he and others were brought in for, which by players and reporters accounts, did make a difference in the vibe of the team as compared to 2023, but still wasn’t ultimately enough to help get the team back to the playoffs.
February saw the next signing of note bringing in Veteran Keynan Middleton on a 1-year, 5 million dollar deal. Middleton suffered through an arm injury for the entirety of the 2024 season, but was reported to have been a positive in the clubhouse and with young pitchers. Perhaps the Cardinals will seek a reunion with Middleton on a minor league deal given that the team is familiar with the players medicals and also has a year of experience within the organization.
February 27th saw the last noteworthy addition to the club when the team signed veteran SS Brandon Crawford to a 1-year, 2 million dollar deal to backup rookie shortstop Masyn Winn. In 29 games Crawford slashed .169/.263/.282 good for an .545 OPS. Another veteran leader and at the time we were unaware of the discomfort Winn was experiencing in his back (which if you’re like me and have experienced back issues of your own you’ll know it’s very difficult to play baseball with a bad back.)
March
March was dominated by injuries, as is the fear of most clubs preparing for the season. We saw Sonny Gray forced to start the season late because of a nagging hamstring issue, Lars Nootbaar because he has golden retriever energy and literally ran into a wall in spring training, and Dylan Carlson because of a collision with Jordan Walker in an exhibition game against the Cubs which prompted the Cardinals, prematurely but out of necessity, to select the contract of Victor Scott II.
The Cardinals kicked off the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers fresh off of signing Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Teoscar Hernandez, and trading for Tyler Glasnow they were a force on paper and they proved it in their series with them outscoring the Cardinals 23-14 in 4 games.
April
After taking 5 of 8 from the Padres, Marlins, and Phillies the team headed to Arizona and Oakland and split those games 3-3 coming back home to face Milwaukee and were promptly swept in unceremonious fashion. They then welcomed the Diamondbacks to town for one of the seasons most memorable moments:
On the very first pitch Gorman saw he sent it 425 feet into the St. Louis night to give the Cardinals a win in dramatic fashion.
The Cardinals finished out the month with visits to the New York Mets and the Detroit Tigers to finish the month with a record of 14-16. It wasn’t the gangbusters start to the season the team or the fans probably had hoped for but going in knowing the early portion of the schedule featured a lot of very talented teams and feeling that maybe the Cardinals had done well enough to survive that once the schedule turned they would soon take off.
May
The first 11 days of the month of May felt like the lowest point in Cardinals baseball since June of 2021 (if you don’t remember it was BRUTAL.) The Cardinals lost the series to the worst regular season team in baseball history the 2024 Chicago White Sox, were swept by the New York Mets and lost their starting Catcher Willson Contreras after being hit on the back swing by Mets DH JD Martinez, and then lost 3 in a row to the Brewers until May 12th (every optimistic Cardinals fans favorite arbitrary date in 2024.)
Until Mother’s Day Paul Goldschmidt hadn’t registered a hit in the month, and it takes a 1 home run, 3 RBI performance from the team’s cornerstone and Oli Marmol and Daniel Descalso being ejected from the game to awaken the team. After that game the Cardinals rode the momentum going 7-2 against the Angels, Red Sox, and sweeping off the early season favorites, the Baltimore Orioles, and welcomed into St. Louis their longtime rivals the Chicago Cubs. Matt Carpenter found the fountain of youth and provided Cardinals fans with one more memorable hit:
A back and forth thriller between the two central division rivals provided an early season playoff feel. The Cardinals swept the two games played and took 2 of 3 from Cincinnati before dropping the final game of the month to Philadelphia. Their record at the time was 27-28.
June
The May magic wore off at the beginning of June as the team dropped series to the Phillies and Astros, and only split with the Colorado Rockies. June 11th the Cardinals got their first taste of 2023 number 1 overall pick Paul Skenes as he and Miles Mikolas matched up for an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel:
In one of the rare games that Helsley faltered it cost them the only game they lost in the series taking the next two from the Pirates, followed by a Father’s Day weekend that saw the Cards win the series in a rubber game on the back of a Pedro Pages home run. The team then had a series to forget in Miami when both Helsley and Romero were given mandatory rest because of usage and it ultimately cost them the series. The next game won would be one with the national stage and all the eyes of baseball as the Cardinals and Giants would battle on Rickwood Field in Birmingham Alabama:
With Willie Mays having passed away just before the game was to be played, the game was not only one of historical significance, but also one of celebration of the life of one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. As far as the game went the Alabama native Brendan Donovan stole the show going 3-4 with a 1 home run and 3 RBI performance! 3 days later on that Sunday afternoon, we saw arguably Sonny Gray’s best performance as a Cardinal when he took a perfect game into the 8th inning:
The Cardinals swept the Giants, won the series at home against Atlanta, and split the series at home against Cincinati finishing the month of June at 43-40.
July
The first part of the month the Cardinals continued to roll, winning their series against Pittsburgh and Washington, however, they stumbled to the finish line being swept in a 2-game series against Kansas City and splitting a 4-game series with the Cubs before the All Star break. The team finished 50-46 heading into the break and seemed positioned to add at the trade deadline and make a push to return to the playoffs. The Cardinals would start 3-3 out of the gate against Atlanta and Pittsburgh, before dropping 2 of 3 to Washington. On July 29th the Cardinals, Dodgers, and White Sox got together to complete a 3-team trade that would send Erick Fedde and former Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham to St. Louis, costing the Cardinals Tommy Edman, who hadn’t played all season due to setbacks from wrist surgery. Reporting prior to the deal had stated that ownership would not okay further spending and John Mozeliak had to work within the parameters of the budget he was given. At the time Cardinals fans were pleased with the trade and most industry experts weren’t sure why the White Sox would make such a deal for such little in return. July 30th, the very next day, in his first at bat back with the Cardinals, Tommy Pham, provided Cardinals fans with another memorable moment from 2024:
The Cardinals also executed one final trade with the Tampa Bay Rays sending former top prospect Dylan Carlson for reliever Shawn Armstrong. It was also the MLB debut of 2021 1st round pick Michael McGreevy and he did NOT disappoint and maybe more so changed his status within the organization than any other player from this point on:
August
Riding high from an infusion of talent and right in the thick of the playoff race the Cardinals would stumble at a terrible time going 5-12 from August 1st through the 20th that would essentially end their bid for the playoffs. This stretch would lead to the Cardinals releasing veteran SS Brandon Crawford and placing Tommy Pham and Shawn Armstrong on waivers. They were ultimately claimed by the Royals and Cubs in their hunt for the playoffs as the Cardinals faded towards the middle. August 24th also saw Willson Contreras fracture his right middle finger ending his season and potentially bringing an end to his catching career (as he’s expected to transition to first base in 2025.) The Cardinals would finish August 68-68.
September
In late April young phenom Jordan Walker was optioned back to AAA for the 2nd season in a row and had struggled to find his footing. He was recalled in late August as the team had over gone “roster churn” as Mozeliak would call it and on September 1st we saw another flash of what Jordan Walker could be in a 5-5 game against the New York Yankees:
As the season begins winding down and the Cardinals seemingly fall the rest of the way out of contention, we see veteran players go on the IL for nagging injuries they’ve been dealing with all season. Lance Lynn on a couple of occasions had to miss time, but in his final appearance as a Cardinal he gave fans 6 vintage innings (nut grabs and all!):
On September 27th, Ryan Helsley, the Cardinals All Star Closer, tied the team record for saves in a single season with 49, tying Trevor Rosenthal who set the mark in 2015, when the Cardinals won 100 games and won the division:
The 2024 Cardinals would go 9-4 over their final 13 games to finish 83-79 for the season and tied with the Chicago Cubs for 2nd place in the division to the champion Milwaukee Brewers.
Offseason
Immediately following the conclusion of the 2024 season the Cardinals held their “end of season” press conference where it was announced that Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak would step down at the end of the 2025 season and Chaim Bloom, the former Boston POBO and former front office member of the Tampa Bay Rays organization, would take over after a year overseeing a complete overhaul of the player development system that once propped up an annual juggernaut of talent production. It was also announced that 2025 would be an evaluation year and that it was important for the team to find out what it has in some of its young players and if they can be counted on as core members of a winning team going forward or if the team may be in for a longer reset period than it had originally anticipated.
The team declined their club options on Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, and Keynan Middleton, they said goodbye to its veteran free agents Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Kittredge, and Matt Carpenter, and they have continued to listen to offers on Nolan Arenado as they seek to reduce payroll for the impending reduction in revenue as it relates to a decline in ticket sales as well as a reduced amount from its current TV plan with Diamond Sports group.
From all of us at Viva El Birdos we want to wish you all a Happy New Year! Stay warm during this winter and take solice in the fact that we’re only 41 days from pitchers and catchers reporting. The boys of Summer are just around the corner and it will be baseball season once more! Thanks for reading.